Home Alignment Tools

[440 PHIXX]

I did my front end by eye. Looks good so far!

 

[Ceedawg]

camber and toe are easy to do, caster is the hardest

 

[hunt2elk]

@IT'S DYNAMITE , you will need to explain how you can dish out a big red X for a guy asking a simple question.

 

[Ed Brock]

I have used the old metal frame you mount on stands and set the pointer on the tires. It's okay for a rough setting. It gets you to the pros just fine. Is it the way to aline your car? No. You need a pro. These tools are just for roughing it in.

 

[Ritchieb]

I use the same alignment tool kit as

DodgeBoy5150. That tool does check castor/camber as well as toe in/out and is accurate. The only thing most do it yourself alignment systems don't do is check the front wheels with the alignment of the back wheels. But you can check this with laser levels and some retooling of the plates that come with the kit. You can buy some wheel gauge attachments similar to the ones used by professionals and then make a scale to measure the front to rear wheel alignment.​

 

[69_Coronet]

When I did my home alignment, I just used an electronic angle measuring (tilt) gauge. I removed the wheels from the front and blocked up the brake disks on top of a cobbled together set of turn plates (two layers of 3/4" plywood with garbage bags used as the bearings). This got the car to level and allowed the steering and suspension to work. Having the wheels and tires off also made it much easier to get at the cam bolts on the upper control arms. The tilt gauge was a magnetic mount, so I stuck it to the brake disk and this allowed me to set the camber and caster. Clamping a straightedge to the brake disks allowed me to set the toe easily. I was a bit nervous about the quality of the results, but when I took it to an alignment shop, it was pretty much spot on, so I was pretty happy. The tilt gauge is pretty cheap, the one I have is a Tilt Box from Lee Valley Tools and is C$50. Cheers!